ABSTRACT
Le Corbusier prepared several plans to revitalise and rebuild a series of French cities that had been destroyed during the conflict in an attempt to provide new housing for a significant part of the population. Le Corbusier's project for Saint-Dié was carried out between April 1945 and February 1946. It consisted of a plan for a city of approximately 20,000 inhabitants and capital of the Vosges District, located along the Meurthe River at the foot of the Vosges Mountains in southern Lorraine, near the border with Alsace in northwestern France. Given that not much was left of old Saint-Dié after the bombings, Le Corbusier saw this project as an opportunity to apply the principles of the Athens Charter. Le Corbusier's project for Saint-Dié was never built, and the civic centre was replaced by a reconstruction of the old Rue de Thiers. Saint-Dié plan probably has the best overall view of what Le Corbusier thought the city might be.
